#Extradition Bill

[yeo223]

If We Burn

The fiery resolve of the Hong Kong people blazes furiously in James Leong and Lyn Lee’s brutal documentary.If We Burn

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"NEW LIGHT IS SHED BY POLICE ON STAUD CASE," Hamilton Spectator. December 7, 1933. Page 7. ---- Local Lawyer Was Impersonated, Officers Claim ---- Efforts Are Made to Extradite Prisoner ---- Hearing is Taking Place This Afternoon ---- Extradition proceedings to bring Milton (Midge) Staud back to Hamilton to face charges arising from the alleged payment of $15,100 in bogus United States bills to the H. S. Robinson Wine corporation will be launched to-morrow afternoon when formal evidence will be heard by Deputy Magistrate James McKay, after which the case will be placed before the authorities at Washington. Harry Hazell will act for the crown and subpoenas to appear are being issued by Sergeant Frank Samson to Harry Hersenhoren, manager of the winery; John S. Dean, manager of the King and Wentworth streets branch of the Dominion bank; Eric Stangroom, accountant at the same bank; Ald. R. R. Evans, and several others.

The evidence to be offered will be on three specific charges of using forged United States gold certificates, possessing forged United States gold certificates and obtaining goods by false pretenses.

Local Lawyer Impersonated One point in the case which has puzzled officers investigating the various details was cleared up this morning when they learned how the Harry H., the craft under seizure at Port Hope for transporting the wine, was released from the custom dock at that town prior to making the trip to Rochester. The boat was being held by the Port Hope customs collector under a lien issued on behalf of R. R. Evans, local barrister, when he was not paid for registering the boat for the current owners. The ship could not be released until Mr. Evans notified the Port Hope official to do so, and a mysterious telephone call purporting to be from Mr. Evans to the customs officer accomplished that purpose.

The Mounted Police claim that Staud made the telephone call and offer as proof the fact that when the call was traced they found it came from a room in the Royal Connaught hotel, registered in the name of R. R. Evans. When the officers investigated this, they learned that it was Staud who went to the hotel and took the room using the name of Evans.

Another fact disclosed this morning is that the bills used were forgeries of United States treasury gold certificates and under the present gold ban in that country it is illegal for any one to be in possession of more than one $100 gold certificate. This fact was apparently overlooked when Staud paid for the wine with the counterfeit bills.

[reasonandempathy]

Walz has served as Minnesota’s governor since 2019 after 12 years in the House of Representatives and now chairs the Democratic Governors Association. He has built a reputation as a folksy politician who can get things done, as Minnesota has adopted a number of progressive laws during his tenure. According to a poll conducted earlier this year, Walz enjoys an approval rating of 55% among Minnesotans. Since Minnesota Democrats achieved a legislative trifecta in the 2022 elections, Walz and his allies have used their power to push a slate of progressive policies. The governor has signed bills protecting abortion access, expanding background checks for prospective gun owners and legalizing recreational marijuana. “Right now, Minnesota is showing the country you don’t win elections to bank political capital,” Walz said last year. “You win elections to burn political capital and improve lives.” That philosophy has endeared him to progressives, who threw their support behind him as the veepstakes kicked into high gear over the past two weeks. They reshared clips of Walz lovingly mocking his daughter’s vegetarianism and tinkering with his car to paint him as the dad that America needs right now.

This is fucking awesome! Honestly, sincerely good news and a very promising pick for the potential Harris Administration. An aggressive, unabashed, popular, populist left-winger with a track record of enacting real, substantive help for people is capital-G Great.

What has he done, specifically?

Abortion rights

In a 1995 ruling, the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld abortion rights in Minnesota. In January 2023, Walz signed the PRO Act (Protect Reproductive Options Act) into law, making abortion a "fundamental right," as well as access to contraception, fertility treatments, sterilization and other reproductive health care.

The law made Minnesota the first state to codify abortion rights in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which nullified Roe. v. Wade after nearly 50 years of precedent. In April 2023, Walz signed the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act into law, shielding women and providers from any legal action originating from the patient's state.

Pro-LGBTQIA+ legislation

In March 2023, Walz signed an executive order to protect the right of residents to have access to gender-affirming health care. Weeks later, he signed the "Trans Refuge" bill, banning the enforcement of arrest warrants, extradition requests and out-of-state subpoenas for those who traveled to Minnesota for care.

"When someone else is given basic rights, others don't lose theirs," Walz said. "We aren't cutting a pie here. We're giving basic rights to every single Minnesotan."

Paid family, medical and sick leave

In May 2023, Walz signed a law creating a state-run program to provide paid family and medical leave for Minnesota workers, funded by a 0.7% payroll tax on employers, by 2026.

Legalization of recreational marijuana

In May 2023, Minnesota became the 23rd state in the nation to legalize recreational cannabis use. Three months later, people 21 and older could start to possess certain amounts of marijuana at home and on their person, in addition to legally growing up to eight plants at a time.

Restoration of voting rights for former felons

In March 2023, Walz signed a bill that restored the right to vote to more than 50,000 convicted felons who had already served their time.

Universal school meals

Amid the increase in food insecurity for many Minnesotans during the pandemic, and the subsequent strain on the state's food shelves that remains to this day, Walz signed a bill in March 2023 that ensures all K-12 students in the state have access to free breakfast and lunch on school days.

Do you know what makes this even better?

Fuck 'Em. I know negative partisanship is important and can help motivate right-wingers to vote, but they're going to vote anyway. And him being afraid of Walz is just a sign that he's a good pick, in policy and politics.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

slowly bringing this terror into the world with my scary kinesis power (typing)

laying here spinning in my head 1/adaine's new gf meets riz for the first time fic or 2/riz and baron fake dating for event thing fic maybe I just wanna think abt future stuff for my guy. just pure thinkin bout him chillin kickin ass

[syoddeye]

catnap

nikolai x f! reader | ~1.1k words cw: implied abduction. please tell me if you need something tagged. a/n: wrote this on my phone. lightly edited.

you need to disappear.

you have one packed bag, cash in a couple different currencies, and a fake passport that took a year to acquire. after selling all your worldly belongings and pawning your family heirlooms, you have enough to find transport. you think.

the passport guy hooks you up with a number. tells you to call it between one and two pm, says there’s a time difference. no sweat. if this works, if you can secure a path out, you’d call at two in the morning.

the phone rings long enough to make you sweat. burner clutched in a clammy palm. but finally a man answers. voice deep and thick, something you’d like to sink into if the circumstances were different. russian.

you don’t understand him, but you know it’s a greeting.

in a few short words you introduce yourself. explain you need a ride out of the country.

he switches to english after a delay. tinged with amusement, like he thinks you’re a runaway kid on the line.

— where to?

anywhere. maybe somewhere with a beach. where people don’t ask a lot of questions.

— i know just the place.

he gives you directions—instructions on what to do when you arrive at the rendezvous. he speaks as if he's arranging something normal, like you're nothing discussing him smuggling you out. adamant about one detail.

— come alone. fewer people, fewer witnesses. agreed?

you do. he tells you the amount he expects upfront. it’s steep, it’ll take what cash you reserved for this, but no matter. you can find work. you’ve always landed on your feet.

the old hangar looks abandoned, cloaked in a thin veil of mist burning off in the morning sun. ivy chokes one of its walls, poking through patches of sheet metal bolted haphazardly over a hole.

sweat clings to your hairline and neck. apart from walking the last two miles, you’re nervous. today’s the day.

music emanates from a chipped wooden door propped ajar. heavy metal. fitting, you guess. poking through, you see the back of a man. faded reddish brown leather stretches over a set of broad shoulders. a sweep of combed dark hair rests on the collar. a cranking sound accompanies the slight swivel of his upper body.

in front of him, a helicopter. your eyes widen, your pathetic vending machine breakfast pulses in your stomach. those things are death traps, and it sounds like he’s working on it.

you could turn back, but your contact had made a comment. one that propels you one stiff footstep at a time through the door.

nikolai is the best in the business, and no one else will accept such a small job.

he turns when you turn down the stereo’s dial with a shaking hand. his face is dusted with a bit of facial hair as if shaved recently, with lines near his eyes and mouth that indicate some years on you. thick eyebrows that raise in surprise, then settle as he grins. crooked teeth, a glint of metal near the back. your name rolls off his tongue and he sets a wrench down, offering you a gloved hand.

— my passenger of the day. little troublemaker.

you heat at that. it makes you curious about how much he knows. it’s not like you told your contact your reasons for leaving. money is a better conversationalist. universal language.

and you have just enough to bridge whatever gap needs crossing between you and nikolai.

he briefs you on the flight plan. he’ll take you to taiwan. they don’t extradite. assures you the heli is solid. he’s just a tinkerer. tells you to use the toilet. he’ll push as far as he can before stopping for fuel and rest. it’ll take three days.

you’re okay with that. you don’t know a thing about flying in something as small as a helicopter and know no better. he seems friendly enough. the glock you bought off a forum months ago in your bag will hopefully keep him that way.

he takes your cash. barely counts it. tuts. it’s enough, it’s the amount he asked for. he gives you a grin and stuffs the bills into a pocket.

— how much more do you have?

the question sets you on edge. great. another chump trying to take advantage of you. he reads your face.

— nothing like what you’re thinking. you have enough to take care of yourself when i deliver you?

you’re not sure, and you say as much. casually. maintaining feigned aloofness. you brag. i always land on my feet.

— like a cat?

he laughs. a big, boisterous sound. it makes your lip twitch. he says something in russian to himself and claps a hand on your shoulder before he turns back to make final adjustments.

— let’s find you a home, little cat.

the heli rolls out and lifts off less than twenty minutes after you arrive. your stomach is in your throat the entire time. nikolai’s muttered swearing does not alleviate the nausea. god, you don’t want to die before your third chance at life.

but it levels out, the sky is clear, and you’re off.

conversation is awkward. doesn't help that the headset nikolai gave you is meant for a much larger head. he lofts easy questions, dances around what he probably wants to know. sussing out your limits. you split focus between unclenching every muscle in your body and providing vague answers.

— you look tired. you can sleep if i am wearing you out with my questions.

he's not wrong. you are exhausted after waking up before dawn to ensure you arrived on time, but you really don’t want to sleep. nikolai is a stranger albeit a polite one. he's a criminal. it's hypocritical, but you know what you've done. you don't know a thing about him beyond: russian, helicopter pilot, and expensive.

he reads your mind again, though, it doesn't take a genius to understand why a young woman might be afraid to fall asleep next to a man she doesn't know.

— i won't hurt you. i have a reputation to uphold. hurting women is not part of that reputation.

his eyebrows lift behind his sunglasses, and the smile he gives you is warm. maybe. maybe a few hours shut eye wouldn't be so bad. you acquiesce, slumping into the cracked leather of the seat.

— enjoy your cat nap. i will wake you if necessary.

you nod sleepily and curl as much as you can onto the seat, hugging yourself tight. the thrum of the engine and propellers makes for decent white noise. you're out within minutes.

nikolai hums when it becomes clear you're asleep. he tilts his head, taking you in as best he can while you're all balled up. curious about the stray cat he's agreed to ferry to safety. pretty thing. shy. well-behaved.

and he thinks.

the black sea has beaches.

[ckret2]

Ok so I have like 2 questions for you.

What do you think the Axolotl would have done if Bill mange to make Weirdmeggadon global?

2. What do you think would have happen to Bill if the Zodiac ritual succeed?

Anyway I hope you have a nice day!

To the Axolotl, his situation with Bill is like this:

Bill's got the Axolotl on call as his defense attorney, because if law enforcement ever catches him, he's gonna go on trial for a mass murder he committed a trillion years ago.

But he's spent all that time in a no extradition country laughing at law enforcement. And committing more crimes.

But recently he left that country... to attempt to rob a bank in another country... but the first hostage Bill tried to take shot him before he could even get out of the getaway vehicle, and he got arrested and taken to court. The Axolotl did his job and got Bill off the death penalty with an insanity plea, sending him to a forensic psychiatric hospital instead of prison.

If Bill had managed to make Weirdmageddon global, that would've been equivalent to successfully taking the entire bank hostage, emptying out the vaults, and setting up a new HQ in the bank from which he can start taking over the rest of the city.

The Axolotl is powerful, but there's different kinds of power and certain ways he's willing to exercise his. He's not a cop, he's a lawyer. He's not gonna come down to fight Bill. He's blowing up his phone telling him this is a terrible idea and trying to persuade him to surrender himself to the authorities quietly—before Bill makes this even worse for himself, everyone around him, and his poor attorney who's gonna have to try to explain this circus to a judge.

I don't have a canon theory for what the zodiac would've done. I have a headcanon of what the zodiac would've done, but that's spoilers.

[wilwheaton]

What happens when Texas makes it a felony to travel to New Mexico to access these services? Or invokes the Comstock Act to prevent internet service providers and phone companies from allowing people in Texas to look up or call abortion organizations? Texas could use Senate Bill 7–style laws, laws that cannot effectively be challenged in court, to allow people in Texas to sue women leaving the state to get an abortion. This effectively criminalizes the act of leaving the state to seek an abortion, and it leads inevitably to a situation where a woman leaves Texas, gets an abortion, and cannot or does not return. The resulting extradition fight will inevitably go straight to the Supreme Court, which will not be pulling a King Solomon. The court will have to decide for one side or the other, and it is going to infuriate the losing side. If the court sides with New Mexico, it will empower voices like Marjorie Taylor Greene’s, calling for secession. If it sides with Texas, it will set off a panic in blue states, which will realize that they no longer have control over their own state laws and are at the mercy of unaccountable Christian nationalists thousands of miles away. Framed as a battle between the rights of red states and blue states, it seems obvious which one this conservative-leaning Supreme Court will side with.

Why We’re Barreling Toward a Legal War Between the States

[phaeton-flier]

How Harris/The Dems should deal with "the border crisis" (nonexistant):

Quietly, do all of the actually good things an even slightly moral government would do. Restart the remain in place policy, let asylum seekers back in, do as much as possible to reduce the horrid idiotic inefficient aspects of the current visa system, etc

Every time anyone is extradited from the US for any reason, call it a deportation. "We're deporting this criminal out of the country." Every time you do this, make a clear distinction between the Innocent Families just trying to fulfill the American Dream, and the Bad Guys, who do bad things to those Innocent Families. Repeat that a lot, Americans love the deserving poor vs. the undeserving poor; the mistake Dems have made for the last 30 years is thinking you need to cut off a large number of people as "undeserving". In reality, you describe all the people you're helping as "deserving" and all the people you arrest as "undeserving". Bad Guys hurt Innocent Families, where Innocent Families encompasses both most migrants and you, the viewer at home.

Make giant immigration bill. Fill it mostly with whatever, maybe reform immigration if you can swing it, but it doesn't matter. Inside, in two small parts, will be: a) some minor provision that expands executive power at the border in some fashion. This doesn't need to actually do anything, probably shouldn't so the next president can't abuse it, maybe it affects some minutia about hiring and firing or what sort of arrests get sentenced first. But it can be spun as "giving the president the power to secure the border". and b) some culture war bullshit that the dumber Rs can flip out about. Make it as asinine as possible. Have a few interns spend a week on Twitter and Gab until they find whatever brain worms are popular on the Dumb Right and put it in. When they go on TV to complain about it, it should look to most viewers like they're insane. When the bill inevitably fails, have some guy go on TV and say the Republicans crushed it and made the border worse because they're obsessed with culture war nonsense. Harris really wanted to use that new thing to secure it! Whenever anything bad happens even tangentially related to the border or immigration, go on TV and say it's because we didn't pass that awesome bill, because the republicans cared more about some culture war bullshit. (If it passes, celebrate whatever you wanted in the bill passing and then say Rs watered down the border thing)

Every so often, when someone somewhere does a real bad violent crime and is an undocumented migrant and gets deported, make a big media circus out of it and tout it as a win. Make sure every new channel is connecting the idea, in viewers' brains, that this is the party that is deporting "the bad guys"

Find someone really sympathetic who was deported under the Trump and bring them back. You should do this anyways because it's the right thing to do, but in this specific case you want to find a religious light-skinned pretty young woman with decent English, who can go in front of the cameras and cry about how much she loves Jesus and America and her family, and how happy she is to be back.

Find an undocumented migrant who came in/overstayed their visa during the Trump who is an undocumented migrant who did a real bad violent crime who came in during the Trump administration. Imply this is the fault of him and his cronies' policies. The general slant you want here is that Republicans etc. cannot tell the difference between the Scary Bad Guys and the Innocent Families. This could be because they are incompetent or racist; describe in terms vague enough the viewer can interpret it themselves. Either way, Republicans cannot protect you because they cannot tell a Bad Guy from a Christian. When they start talking about all the border crossing, imply they think every one of those people is a Bad Guy and not an Innocent Family, because they are (incompetant/stupid/racist/unAmerican) You'll notice all of these things include "Go on TV and talk about it", which should be considered to be repeated three times every time it shows up. If there is one lesson to have learned over the last 15 years, it's that repeating something to the press often enough will change the message, whatever it is. Just keep saying it. Every time there's a win, go on TV and talk about how great it is. if you're having trouble getting your message out, put the pill in a piece of cheese: Have it leak to the press, who will lap it up because they lovvvvvvvve the idea that they're getting Cool Secret Scoops. Frame it as a horserace thing when Rs try and push back, and make it entertaining to have your guy on there talking down to whatever R they brought on for balance. Above all: be entertaining; News media might view themselves as being Guardians of Truth but they're in the business of selling ads and want eyeballs. Flatter the first illusion and feed the second, and they will give you endless free airtime.

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

Ah I see you're doing the whole "acknowledging the United States' imperialist interests and interference in the politics of countries that compete with those interests is actually USAmerican chauvinism, instead you should Boost X Voices (that agree with me/the US)" thing. The problem is I'm not a fucking idiot that worships at the altar of standpoint epistemology.

The way libs talk about Hong Kong is insane because if you were to seriously accept supporting the Hong Kong protests as a necessary and sufficient condition for being a progressive you would have to accept Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, and literally every single Republican in congress as being progressive thinkers among many other shitheads but people's brains evacuate their skulls at terminal velocity the second China comes up so really not surprising

[coochiequeens]

A 22 year old woman who was about to graduate with a degree in engineering is now dead because her ex couldn't accept that the relationship was over.

Gino Cecchettin, hugging his daughter Elena, attends a torchlit procession in Vigonovo, near Venice, northern Italy, Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023, after the police found the body of his other daughter Giulia, reportedly with multiple stab wounds and wrapped in plastic on Saturday in a ditch near Venice. Police in Germany over the weekend arrested Filippo Turetta, 21, who had been on the run since Nov. 11, when he was last seen arguing with Giulia Cecchettin. (Lucrezia Granzetti/LaPresse via AP)

The Associated Press

ROME -- Italy has erupted in outrage over the death of a young woman, allegedly at the hands of her possessive ex-boyfriend, with the Italian premier vowing to crack down further on gender-based violence that has claimed the lives of more than 50 women so far this year.

Police in Germany over the weekend arrested Filippo Turetta, who had been on the run since Nov. 11, when he was last seen fighting with 22-year-old Giulia Cecchettin, hitting her in a physical attack that was captured by roadside video cameras.

Cecchettin's body, reportedly with multiple stab wounds, was found wrapped in plastic on Saturday in a ditch near Lake Barcis, in the province of Pordenone north of Venice.

Italian newspapers had been consumed with the search for them both, given multiple reports from friends and family that Turetta had refused to accept Cecchettin's decision to end the relationship. Cecchettin’s sister, Elena, said she had been concerned about Turetta’s possessiveness of her sister but never imagined he could hurt her.

Police in the eastern German city of Halle said Sunday that they had detained a 21-year-old Italian man who was wanted by police in Italy after his car broke down on the A9 highway in the south of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Italian news reports said police road cameras had traced Turetta’s black Fiat Punto as he drove on mountain roads through northern Italy, into Austria and then Germany.

Italian state-run radio network RAI said Turetta had agreed to be extradited, and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he was expected back in Italy within days. Venice's chief prosecutor, Bruno Cherchi, suggested Monday it might take longer and urged patience so the investigation can complete its course without external pressure.

The fate of Cecchettin, who had been due to graduate university Thursday with a degree in engineering, had dominated news reports for a week and led to an outpouring of anger when her body was finally found. Even Turetta's parents attended a candlelit vigil for her, and RAI led its main evening news program Sunday with a backdrop made up of portraits of all the women killed in Italy this year.

Premier Giorgia Melon i expressed outrage at Italy’s long history of violence against women by their partners or ex-partners, saying it has appeared to be getting worse recently. She cited data from the Interior Ministry saying of the 102 women killed in Italy this year up to Nov. 12, 53 died at the hands of their partners or former partners.

“Every single woman killed because she is ‘guilty’ of being free is an aberration that cannot be tolerated and that drives me to continue on the path taken to stop this barbarity,” she said in a statement on social media.

A government-backed bill that has already passed the lower Chamber of Deputies and is coming to the Senate later this month would boost preventative measures to protect victims of gender-based violence.

In addition, the Interior Ministry urged all schools to hold a minute of silence on Tuesday in honor of Cecchettin “and all abused women and victims of violence.” An organization of Italian university rectors, meanwhile, vowed to launch initiatives to make students more aware of gender-based violence.

The aim, the group said, was to “promote respect of the person and halt violence against women” through education that fosters a culture of respect and responsibility.

[reasonsforhope]

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill Wednesday repealing the state's nearly century-old abortion ban.

Last month, the state's House and Senate passed HB 4006, a single-sentence bill, which revokes the 1931 law that criminalized abortion.

Specifically, the bill repealed Section 750.14, which makes it a felony -- punishable by up to four years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000 -- to administer drugs that induce a miscarriage unless the mother's life is in danger.

It also repealed Section 750.15, which makes it a misdemeanor to advertise, publish or sell "any pills, powder, drugs or combination of drugs" that can cause an abortion.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, questions remained about whether or not the 1931 law would be put back in place...

A Michigan state judge ruled in September that the ban is unconstitutional, barring any state prosecutors from enforcing it.

Two months later, in the November mid-term elections, Michiganders voted in favor of a constitutional amendment that would add protections for reproductive rights...

The amendment defines reproductive freedom as "the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management and infertility care." ...

Whitmer has openly expressed her support for abortion access in and out of Michigan and signed an executive order in July refusing to extradite women who come to Michigan from other states seeking abortion and refusing to extradite providers for offering the procedure.

"In November, Michiganders sent a clear message: we deserve to make our own decisions about own bodies," Whitmer said in a statement provided to ABC News. "Today, we are coming together to repeal our extreme 1931 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and criminalizing nurses and doctors for doing their jobs."

-via ABC News, 4/5/23

[darkmaga-returns]

FBI white hats have accused Diddy of orchestrating a web of intimidation and blackmail from his prison cell, targeting compromised politicians and celebrities, with Ellen DeGeneres serving as a key accomplice.

A dramatic turn unfolded earlier this week when an FBI raid on Diddy’s cell uncovered damning evidence, leading agents directly to Ellen’s Montecito home. There, they seized a trove of incriminating evidence, allegedly further implicating the duo in serious crimes.

Now, Ellen has fled the U.S. for rural England, declaring she will never return. But with Trump’s DOJ signaling plans for extradition when he reclaims the White House, Ellen’s legal nightmare has only just begun.

Before we dive in, subscribe to our Rumble channel if you haven’t already, and join the People’s Voice Locals Community to be part of our community of truth seekers determined to bring the criminal elite to justice.

How deep in the cheese pizza is Ellen? For years, investigators have been asking whether the talk show host who based her set design on Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile island could possible be connected to the Luciferian cabal that blackmails VIPs while trafficking in children and baby parts.

Talk about hiding in plain sight… and we haven’t even got to the company that Ellen kept. Remember the time Epstein island visitor Bill Gates appeared on her show and she gave him $20,000?

[nullnvoid911]

Police fire non-lethal projectiles during violent clashes against protesters in Hong Kong during protests against a proposed Chinese extradition bill.

Isaac Lawrence, June 12, 2019

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Mark Sumner at Daily Kos:

Illinois has taken a significant step in safeguarding reproductive rights by passing legislation that prohibits state authorities from aiding investigations into individuals seeking abortion services within state borders. This decision comes in response to red states either passing or considering anti-abortion legislation that threatens people who seek abortions in other states.

The new law prevents Illinois authorities from complying with out-of-state subpoenas, summons, or extradition requests related to abortion. It also allows individuals to sue for civil damages if their information is improperly disclosed, a direct repudiation of a proposed law in neighboring Missouri that would have allowed private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident obtain an abortion in another state. While the Missouri law didn’t pass, other bills like one in Tennessee that bans adults from assisting minors in obtaining abortions are moving ahead. The Tennessee bill is similar to an already enacted Idaho law that swiftly came under opposition from 20 other states.  Texas doesn’t explicitly allow its residents to sue someone for helping someone get an abortion in another state, but it has enacted laws that could potentially lead to such situations, and the state’s rabid Attorney General Ken Paxton seems likely to test that possibility. At least 14 states have now moved to help protect abortion providers from lawsuits and prosecution in other states.

[...] Illinois Senator Celina Villanueva, who sponsored the state’s privacy bill, pointed to the aggressive overreach by other states, citing a Texas man petitioning a court to find out who allegedly helped his former partner obtain an abortion in another state and stressing that Illinois must defend the right of individuals to make decisions about their own bodies. All of these measures against obtaining an abortion in another state are pushing the boundaries of state authority and have yet to be fully tested in the courts. But the constitutional right to interstate travel, repeatedly upheld by the Supreme Court, would seem to represent a significant legal challenge to these restrictive measures. 

Both houses in the Illinois General Assembly passed HB5239, a bill that would prohibit state authorities from aiding investigations into individuals seeking abortion services within state borders, a marked and much-needed contrast to states such as Texas and neighboring state Missouri. #Twill #ILLeg

[justforbooks]

Mike Lynch

British tech entrepreneur who sold his Autonomy software group to Hewlett-Packard and was later cleared after a long-running US fraud case

Mike Lynch, who has died aged 59 in the wreck of his yacht, was sometimes described as “Britain’s Bill Gates”. It was a huge exaggeration, but Lynch could claim two parallels with Gates: he developed world-leading technology (in his case in machine learning or AI) and, unlike so many UK scientists, he learned how to turn it into commercial success.

Such was this success that his company, Autonomy, was valued at $11bn when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard in 2011, but the fall-out from the sale would come to overshadow his technological achievements, and lead to a national debate about the circumstances in which UK citizens may be extradited to the US.

Lynch founded Autonomy with two partners in 1996. Its software enabled a computer to search huge quantities of diverse information, including phone calls, emails and videos, and recognise words. He told the Independent in 1999: “The way our technology works is to look at words and understand the relationships because it has seen a lot of content before. When it sees the word ‘star’ in the context of film, it knows it has nothing to do with the word moon. Because it works from text, it can deal with slang and with different languages.”

Autonomy became a leading company in Cambridge’s Silicon Fen cluster and established a base in San Francisco. “We knew we had to be successful in America. It was a question of ‘Go West young man, go to San Francisco and be ignored.’ They found it hard to believe that anyone from England could have anything powerful.” Lynch found what he called the “cold-hearted schmooze” to secure funding tough.

But Autonomy’s software, enabling computers to identify and match themes and ideas, and sort mammoth amounts of data, was licensed to more than 500 customers, including the US State Department and the BBC. It was listed on Nasdaq in 1998 and on the FTSE 100 in November 2000, although its value of £5.1bn would be halved within a few months in the collapse of the technology boom and accusations of over-promotion. In 2005 it bought a major US rival, Verity, for $500m.

Lynch’s profile rose with it. In 2006 he was appointed OBE for services to enterprise and the following year joined the board of the BBC. In 2011 he became a member of the government’s Council for Science and Technology, and was named the most influential person in UK IT by Computer Weekly. In 2014 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

Though quietly spoken, he had a reputation for toughness, coloured by a liking for James Bond, which led to Autonomy conference rooms being named after Bond villains, and a tank of piranha fish in reception. (Lynch claimed it belonged to one of his business partners.) Challenged about a company culture where people were “a little fanatical”, he replied: “This is not the place for you if you want to work 9 to 5 and don’t love your work.”

Born in Ilford, east London, to Michael, a firefighter, and Dolores, a nurse, and brought up in Chelmsford, Lynch won a scholarship to the independent Bancroft’s school in Woodford Green, before taking a natural sciences degree at Cambridge, where his PhD in artificial neural networks, a form of machine learning, has been widely studied since.

A saxophone player and jazz lover, he set up his first business, Lynett Systems, while still a student, to produce electronic equipment for the music industry. Later he would attribute some loss of hearing to adjusting synthesisers for bands. He quoted his own experience to highlight the difficulties of finding funding for startup businesses in Britain. He finally negotiated a £2,000 loan from one of the managers of Genesis in a Soho bar.

Lynch’s next venture came out of his research. In 1991 he founded Cambridge Neurodynamics, specialising in computer-based fingerprint recognition. Then he established Autonomy.

The pinnacle of his success appeared to come in October 2011 when Autonomy was purchased by Hewlett-Packard for $11bn and Lynch made an estimated $800m. Shortly afterwards he established a new company, Invoke Capital, for investment in tech companies, and he and his wife, Angela Bacares, whom he had married in 2001, invested about £200m in Darktrace, a cybersecurity company.

But just 13 months after the Autonomy sale, HP announced an $8.8bn writedown of the assets “due to serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations” which it claimed had artificially inflated the company’s value. The authorities investigated, and while the UK Serious Fraud Office found insufficient evidence, in 2018 the US authorities indicted Lynch for fraud. Soon after, Autonomy’s chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to five years in prison.

In March 2019 HP followed up with a civil action for fraud in London. Lynch spent days in the witness box as the civil action stretched over nine months. It ended in January 2022 with the judge ruling that HP had substantially succeeded, but that damages would be much less than the $5bn they had claimed.

Meanwhile the US authorities sought Lynch’s extradition on criminal charges of conspiracy and fraud. In spite of representations by senior politicians and accusations that the US authorities were attempting to exercise “extraterritorial jurisdiction”, a district judge ruled in favour of extradition.

An application for judicial review and a further appeal failed, and in May 2023 Lynch was flown to the US to be held under house arrest in San Francisco, with the prospect of a 25-year sentence.

Charged with wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy, on 18 March this year Lynch pleaded not guilty, alongside his former vice-president of finance, Stephen Chamberlain. On 6 June, they were found not guilty of all charges. Chamberlain died after being hit by a car on 17 August.

Lynch declared that he wanted to get back to what he loved doing – innovating. But he had little opportunity to do so. He soon embarked on a voyage to celebrate his acquittal, with family, colleagues and business associates. It ended with the sinking of his yacht, Bayesian – named after the 18th-century mathematician, Thomas Bayes, whose work on probability had informed much of his thinking – in a violent storm off the coast of Sicily.

Lynch is survived by his wife and elder daughter, Esme. Their other daughter, Hannah, was also on board the Bayesian.

🔔 Michael Richard Lynch, technology entrepreneur, born 16 June 1965; died 19 August 2024

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